Wednesday, April 6, 2011

After weeks of damp and dreary weather, the sun is back in control of San Francisco's blue skies, and that means it's time to grill. This video recipe for grilled Korean-style beef short ribs is not so much about the specific recipe, as it is about this lesser-known cut of meat.

It's most commonly sold as "flanken-style," and is nothing more than thin-sliced beef short ribs. We've done several beef short rib recipes on this blog, but all those were cooked low and slow, so the meat's considerable connective tissue has time to breakdown and become tender.

Here, we are only grilling for a few minutes per side, so we're relying on the much thinner cut, and an Asian pear-spiked marinade to achieve a similar succulence. I welcome you to copy my marinade recipe below, as is, but I have to be honest and let you know I never do this the same way twice.

I always include the pear for its sweetness and purported tenderizing abilities, and the soy is pretty much required, but as far as the other ingredients, I play fast and loose. Instead of rice vinegar, sometimes it's lemon and/or lime. Sometimes I'll use ketchup instead of hoisin, or honey instead of brown sugar – you get the idea.

As I say in the video, this is one cut of beef you don't want to grill too rare. It's a very flavorful, but chewy piece of meat to begin with, so in my opinion it needs to be cooked to at least medium to ensure the optimum mouth-feel. By the way, all you "I want mine well-done" people are in luck. This should still be fairly juicy even if cooked all the way through.

Anyway, go talk to your friendly neighborhood butcher, and tell them you want some "flanken-style" beef short ribs, and then give this great grill technique a try. Enjoy!

Nice ! I know that you're not trying to make authentic korean beef, but I do want to give some suggestions for those who want a slight twist on this, slightly more authentic. Perhaps for the better !:

-use korean GoChuJang (hot pepper paste) instead of sambal. it adds a great, deep flavor to the marinade while sambal just adds hotness. you can get very hot and less hot varieties. It should be easy to find in the better Asian supermarket, or any Korean store. Large urban areas should have these.

These are the short ribs I've seen here in Australia, not the variety you use in your other videos. That being said I really haven't looked for the other, although I will this weekend as I've put your wild mushroom and tomato braised ones on our menu for next week. :)

I've found that the flanken ribs that are available at Asian grocery stores seem to be cut more neatly and evenly. I'm guessing they cut them when they're partially frozen, because they have neat right angles and completely flat sides. Plus, they generally have a wider strip of meat than what I am able to find in normal grocery stores.

Also, I make kalbi with kiwi instead of the Asian pear. The final product tastes pretty much exactly the same, but it makes the meat more tender.

The reason for the webbed foam is to protect the pear. Pear like this is fairly expensive in Asia. No one wants to buy a bruised pear in the market. Most vendor in Taiwan also place Peach, nectarine, and Plum in these so that they could sale better.

How international your syllabus is...Thank you Mr. Professor! As a Korean American, I've cooked this many many times. It's great for bbq parties, esp. potluck. Strangely this is not really an authentic Korean dish. Native Koreans call this "L.A. Kalbi" which indicate where this dish is originated. Mostly it is about the way the rib is cut which was totally foreign to native Koreans.

As far as I know, Koreans use sake or Korean rice wine instead of sherry wine and skip the rice vinegar & hot sauce. I don't know why but their pork dishes can often be spicy but not the beef dishes like this.

And yeah the foam is to protect the pear from bruising, which also indicate it is an expensive fruit.

The only thing different we do at our house is use strained kiwi juice in the place of the Asian pear. The acids & protease enzymes in the kiwi make battle with the proteins in the chewy/cheap cut of meat to deliver a more tender meat.

Add the kiwi juice ~2 hours b4 cooking - leave it overnight with the meats and you will have mush. =s

Chef John! you won't believe what i did!! Based on the Asian Pear concept, i decided to make a Lasagna. I made the meat sauce with and asian pear, singer, tomatoes, basil and some oregano. I then use some mozzarela to the filling, and guess what? My inspired experiment kinda work, the Lasagna was not red, kinda brownish but it was a little sweet which is want i wanted to get. At the end it was a fun experience. Was that counterintuitive? I'll apreciate your opinion.

I couldn't wait to try this recipe so I ran right down to my butcher and ordered a couple pounds of ribs. I began to prepare the marinade and soon found that I didn't have either brown sugar or sherry on hand. So I substituted Honey and Marsala wine. WOW! The beef turned out tender with a very complex flavor. Thanks for the recipe John! This one goes in the permanent file.

I would suggest soaking and rinsing the beef in water first before marinating it in case there are pieces of loose bone. This happens a lot in my experience because of the special cut of the bone. I don't know if it is supposed to be this way or not...but if you've been finding bone fragments in the end result, this might help.

Hello, Chef! I am falling in love w/ your site. So informative and fun at the same time. I love this dish (I am Korean living in Korea) and don't know why but they are called "LA Galbi" in Korea for some reason. It's great that you used that pear because my mom always emphasizes the importance of that fruit whenever she cooks Galbi. Next time, try using Gochujang (chilli paste instead of hoisin+sambal)! :)

I'm finding the prices of Korean style short ribs going through the roof at my local grocery store. Any secrets on getting them cheaper somewhere else or maybe a different cut of meat that would be similar?

I have found Western Beef to have good prices on this cut of short ribs. Also Food Dynasty has them from time to time. Any Korean grocery store like Hanahreum or H Mart has this cut of meat but they tend to be a little more than Western Beef or Food Dynasty.

I made this over the weekend, minus the pear, who keeps an Asian pear handy? The plan was to keep some for weeknight dinners. Well that was a fail because nothing was leftover.Weber grill + food wishes = great summer!!

Maangchi (who Chef John managed to introduce me to via amazing soft tofu soup) says that she sometimes uses Bosc pear if Asian pear isn't available. But the pear is important to the dish. And thanks, Chef John for being a good netizen introducing great cooking sites to those of us who don't find the time to go dig them up ourselves. Now I have to find Korean hot pepper paste... :)

These, English cut short ribs and oxtail is my favorite part(s) of the cow but digress.So last time I didn't have an Asian pear, well this time around I ate half the pear. After trying this marinade I don't think that I'll ever go back to mine. Thanks again Chef John.

Just FYI, Costco stocks the chuck boneless beef short ribs,which can be really tough grilled. I used this marinade on these for about 36 hours (it rained on the day that I planned to grill). And they grilled perfectly tender.

Hi Chef John. We do not have a Korean store here. The grocery stores always have beef short ribs, but they are thick & short. Can these be used with this recipe & what changes if any would you make? Thanks!!

Hello Chef John, These short ribs are amazing, we have made them many times and this is our families go to recipe every time we make short ribs. My question is in the event that Asian Pears are not in season , what can or should be used as an substitute? Thank you Chef John, Joey Cecchini